


I Will Follow You Into The Dark (Even If That Means I Won't Come Back)

by Mikey_LiS



Category: Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies), The Last of Us
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, American Sign Language, Because of Reasons, Deaf Character, Dogs, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 12:22:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15534153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikey_LiS/pseuds/Mikey_LiS
Summary: It's been twenty years since the Cordyceps Brain Infection had devastated the human population. Zach and Gray Mitchell live inside the walls of the only remaining quarantine in Michigan, and all they know are the walls, and the dangers that live outside of them.With no hope of a vaccine in sight, Zach had come to terms with living his entire life inside the quarantine. But that all changed when a militia group named the Fireflies made a critical blow to the infrastructure of the quarantine he called home.





	I Will Follow You Into The Dark (Even If That Means I Won't Come Back)

**Author's Note:**

> Whoopsies I'm making a 'the last of us' crossover because I love that game! I'm actually really excited to be juggling two stories at once because I need to keep myself busy, and this seemed like the pefect way to do so.
> 
> A couple disclaimers. 
> 
> This will get v violent, because that's the nature of the game. Also, there's a lot of lore and names to get across, and I hate to make exposition dumps. But that might happen because I'm a bad writer lol.
> 
> Also, I decided to make Gray deaf for a couple of reasons. One, there isn't very many deaf or hard of hearing characters in apocalypse media (or at all, really), and I'd like to change that. And secondly, I'm hard of hearing myself, and think it would be fun to write a character who I can relate to in a way.
> 
> Lastly, there's those pesky dinosaurs. As much as I'd love to write them in this... It would be kind of overwhelming to write sexy megaboi Owen Grady slaying fungus zombies with velociraptors. To compromise, the raptor squad is gonna be dogs because puppers are just adorable.
> 
> Kk, on to my mushroom people melodrama with plenty of gay lmao.

Zach quite liked living in the quarantine.

His whole world had consisted of one-hundred square miles of firebombed buildings, military Humvees, and the soldiers that accompanied them. All of this was surrounded by a concrete wall that was twenty feet tall, and impossibly thick. The wall was topped with blinding searchlights that scanned the surrounding area,and razor wire.

Zach did not understand why the military bothered with the lights. All they were good for was wasting electricity, which was a precious resource. As far as Zach knew, only the fireflies and infected had lived on the other side of the wall. But the fireflies were a lost cause, a dead movement. Nothing but a starving terrorist group which branded itself as a militia that continued to fight a war it couldn't possibly win.

The military had taught Zach this was the safest quarantine zone still running in the Midwest, and the only civilization left in Michigan. He did not doubt this, because there wasn't anything he could compare it to. He also didn't know which were lies either, because questioning the military was punished with the same severity of testing positive for spores.

Execution. 

He liked living in the quarantine because it meant that his brother was relatively safe. And that was really all he liked about it. But Zach would live in thirty pounds of shit if it meant that his younger brother would be okay. His brother, Gray, was a capable young man, who was far too intelligent for his years. But Zach had not a clue how the deaf would fare outside the wall. 

All Zach knew was the wall, and the life he lived inside of it. He was born two years after the wall was erected, inside the bathroom of his parents apartment. He was lucky to have been born inside the wall while the outbreak ravaged humanity on the outside. Even more fortunate that the quarantine had a small, but active deaf community that took his family in when Gray was born. The language they used was beautiful, and was acquired by the family with ease. 

Throughout his years in the quarantine, Zach had lost and gained many things. Friends were a rare commodity, and Zach found such a thing in a girl named Zara, whose mother took the Mitchell brothers in after their parents were executed for participating in a riot for the equal distribution of rations. Gray was five when the military orphaned them. Zara’s mother was part of the deaf community, being deaf herself, and continued to teach the brothers how to communicate with one another. 

All of that was in the past. The outbreak begun twenty years ago, Zach and Zara are now eighteen, and Gray is on the cusp of becoming a teenager. 

Gray is back home with their adoptive mother, most likely griping over how boring school is because, “ _I already knew it all_.” Zach can just picture the eyeroll Charlotte will give Gray back. Zach doesn’t think he will ever be able to call Charlotte his _mother_ like his brother does. Not because he doesn't love her, because he loves her just as much. But the wounds created by his mother's absence have not healed, and he's not sure if they ever will.

Zach and Zara sit on a bench facing the Detroit river. They come here quite often to watch the sunset fall underneath the remains of the Ambassador bridge. This place is special. It's the only place that the sunset can truly be seen, because the wall is the lowest in the river. 

The two watch the clouds shift rosy pink, reminiscent of something Zara's mother would call “ _Cotton candy_ ”. Sometimes, Zach wants to taste the sky, let it fill his empty stomach, and have it float his new family into the technicolor twinkle of the stars a sunset always promises. Instead, he rests his head on Zara's shoulder, and soaks in in the remnants of the days final light. The drab, discolored wall almost appearing orange.

Zara sighs, and taps the top of Zach's head. He sits up and looks Zara in the eyes, and they crinkle to show the semblance of a smile. She then begins to sign. Not because she needs to, they both can hear just fine, but because it’s a form of communication that the two can use that's only for them, and not the soldiers and civilians that roam about. 

“ _Look across the river, the trees are beautiful_ ,” Zara signs. She's right, the trees are beautiful. Across the river remained the wall encompassing the Windsor quarantine. But the wall was nothing more than scorched rubble, the remains of a firebombing to eradicate the infected which had claimed the quarantine. It was a grim reminder of what Zach's home could become. Trees however, had begun to grow back. They were young, but still prepared for a harsh winter by draining the green from their leaves and leaving behind orangey-browns. 

“ _We’ll see them up close one day,_ ” Zach replies, and then signs the word for _promise_.

The two sit and watch the sun dip below the horizon with little fanfare. Zach has only heard stories of fireworks, and he wonders if this is what watching them feels like. Peaceful.

Zara and Zach are alone, which is strange. Usually, soldiers and civilians walk through this area because it’s the most populated. But once the sun had set, and only stars danced in the sky, it was just the two of them. Curfew wasn't until another hour, so why hadn't they seen people pass on their way back to their homes?

Before either of them can question it, the voice of a soldier muffled behind a gas mask can be heard.

“-Yeah, up in that seedy apartment complex down in sector four.”

“You're shitting me,” Another soldier replies. By now, the beams of their flashlights can be seen swaying in the distance.

“The fucker sprouted on the top floor. He must have been there for months. Some wise-ass messed with the ventilation system and sent spores through the entire building. Now the whole sector is compromised!”

Zara’s eyes bulged, looking to Zach as if he knew what to do. They _definitely_ were not supposed to hear whatever the soldiers were talking about. Not only was it scandalous, but the news of an entire sector showing positive signs of spores could potentially send the quarantine into crisis. 

The two had nowhere to run or hide from the soldiers, so they sat for just a little longer in hopes they would just turn the other way. A very stupid plan, but it was the only one.

“Don't people know that leaving the quarantine zone only gets you killed? For fucks sake!”

Their voices got closer.

“Naw, it wasn't someone who snuck out and got back in. There was a fucking firefly pendant in the room where they found the sprouter. _they_ did this- oh shit!”

The beam of the flashlight is blinding, and Zach's attempt to block the bright light from his eyes is futile. The soldiers must know that they heard every single thing. Zach's palms begin to sweat, his breathing is uneven, and his heart beats hard against his ribcage. 

“You two, stand up!” One of them shouts, pointing the business end of a rifle towards them. Zach and Zara are equally terrified, and can't find the strength to even move their legs.

“Man-” The soldier’s partner swats the gun down, and shoves it's owner, leaving Zach confused. “That's the deaf girl, she ain't heard shit. That there is probably her deaf boyfriend or something.”

Zara and Zach share a nervous glance. No, they aren't deaf, but they have family that are. But this could go a lot smoother if they just don't say anything. Zach, flustered beyond belief, decides to sign the words _gay_ and _confused_. Zara replies with a shaky shrug and a nod.

“They're no trouble man, let's just send them home.”

A soldier takes off his gas mask, revealing a balding man with a thick beard. “Home,” he draws the word out, slow and obnoxious. “Leave.”

The two friends stand, and pitter patter off in a hurry without contest.

Once they are outside the hearing distance of the soldiers, and on the sidewalk home, Zara stops, and rests her head on an unoccupied brownstone. “What the hell was that?” She whisper-shouts. It's far too dark now to sign, so this will have to do. “Did he just say that an entire sector could be infected, and that the fireflies are behind it?”

Zach shivers a bit when a cold autumn breeze sweeps by. His mind is running thousands of miles a minute, and he can't help but assume the worse.

“It's not safe here anymore, we need to get your mom and my brother and leave.”

“Leave?!” Zara turns around, and plants her hand on her knees as if she's reprimanding a dog. “There's not exactly a front door to walk through to just leave! And we’ve never been outside of the quarantine zone, we’ll die!”

Zach's stomach is in his mouth, and he wants to throw up. “We’ll die in here if we don't get out! We’ll find a way, people sneak out all the time-”

They're interrupted by a blood curdling scream that dies off quickly in wet, gurgled shouts.

**Author's Note:**

> Here we gooooo lol. Leave suggestions and comments if you'd like. Also, if you made it this far, what's your favorite tea, and how do you prepare it? I myself love a good chai tea with a little soymilk and sugar.


End file.
